manhãvsMariaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“manhã” and “Maria” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#428
“manhã” frequency rank
#619
“Maria” frequency rank
1047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manhã Maria
Definition período do dia entre o nascer-do-sol e o meio-dia prenome feminino muito comum

Where the eye mixes manhã and Maria

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

5 ch
manhã
5 ch
Maria

Look-alike desk: manhã vs Maria

A purely visual mix-up. manhã (/mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃/) and Maria (/ma.ˈɾi.ɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manhã is recorded at frequency rank #428, classified as anoun, pronounced /mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃/. Maria is at rank #619, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ma.ˈɾi.ɐ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 1047, this pair ranks #74,581 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of manhã vs Maria

Shared letters: am. Private to "manhã": hnã. Private to "Maria": ir.

"manhã" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Maria" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Mariaamria · maira · marai · marria · mmaria · mraia

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "manhã" and "Maria" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/mɐ.ˈɲɐ̃/ versus /ma.ˈɾi.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "manhã" vs "Maria" - which ranks higher?
"manhã" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #428 in our Portuguese list, against #619 for "Maria". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "manhã" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Maria" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #74,581 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manhã" and "Maria" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maria vs mirra". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #74,581 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list